Unpredictable
by Santana2
Summary: Sometimes someone has to save your butt before you realize that they're alright. A story about the first time Robin and Kid Flash met.


**A/N:** I don't know how many people have done the "Robin meets Kid Flash for the first time" story before, but a reviewer put the idea in my head so I'll go with it. I guess this could also be considered a sequel to "The Truth about Kids" but I won't make you read that one first.

**Disclaimer:** I'm not going to say it . . . mostly because I really want to see those DC ninjas . . .

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><p>It always annoyed Robin when Batman started talking about him like he couldn't here every word. Was the fact that he was young make him invisible <em>and <em>deaf?

He shrugged off his annoyance and focused again on the conversation taking place a few feet away. That was another thing, did adults think just because they walked a little ways away from him that made the conversation private?

It didn't, he could hear the Flash clear as a bell, "Calm down Bats, I'm not here to get in the way – "

"And yet you'll find a way to, I'm sure," Batman interrupted irritably. Robin was honesty amazed that the Flash had shown up in Gotham, uninvited, twice now and Batman hadn't killed the speedster yet.

Flash continued like the Bat hadn't spoken, "I just wanted them to get to know one another, like a play date."

Robin ruffled a little at the term "play date." He wasn't five; he didn't need someone to arrange his calendar for him. However, the comment did draw his attention back to the topic of tonight's unexpected visit; the yellow clad, red-headed figure standing behind the Flash. The one that had been staring at him quite intently since the two speedsters had first found them on this roof-top. It was starting to creep him out.

"Flash," Batman said in the same exasperated tone he sometimes used when Robin started rambling about something (as he often did), "when someone arranges a meeting, of any kind, it is customary to let the other party know first." Batman sounded like he was talking to a particularly slow child.

But Flash ignored the tone and shrugged, "Yeah, but I knew you'd say no," When Batman only glared at him he continued, smiling, "Besides, Wednesdays are usually your slow night, you said so yourself."

Batman thought for a second before replying slowly, "I never told you that."

The other hero chuckled a little awkwardly, "No, but you did tell Superman. And I was eavesdropping."

At that, Robin had to giggle a little . . . and was rather surprised when the red-head still standing behind Flash did so at the same time. When Robin caught the boy's eye again, the other looked away quickly, still smiling.

Batman turned slightly to give his ward a very watered-down version of the Bat-glare. Robin lowered his eyes, but continued to grin with amusement at his guardian's expense.

He turned back to Flash and growled, "And what exactly does this 'play date' entail?"

Robin leaned forward a little. He noticed the Flash-boy look up at his mentor questioningly as well, as if the Flash hadn't filled him in before they came.

"Oh . . . um," and apparently the Flash hadn't really thought about it either.

Robin was especially glad at that moment that no one could see his eyes; rolling his eyes at an adult could be considered rude, no matter the circumstances.

"Flash," Batman said, again with a tone that suggested Flash's brain might not be as quick as his feet, "This is the second time you've come here without an actual plan. It's becoming tiresome."

"Alright, alright, don't get your cape in a knot," Flash said and thought for a second, "How about this? The kids patrol one side of town together and I'll help you with the other half. You'll get it done twice as fast and be home in time for late-night reruns. What do you say?"

Batman looked like he would rather set himself on fire than spend the next few hours patrolling with a man who on a regular basis spoke at least a thousand words a second. But apparently realized Flash was set on this little scheme of his, if one could even call it a scheme it was so impulsive. So after several minutes, instead of having Flash spend countless hours talking him into it, he relented.

"Just this once," the Dark Knight said grumpily and walking back to Robin, "But you will do everything I tell you, nothing else. And you," He turned his gaze to the smaller Flash, who withered ever so slightly behind the older, "_behave yourself_."

Robin wasn't sure if the Bat meant to put the implied _or else_ at the end of the comment or if it just came natural by now.

"Um, Batman," Robin said, surprised as he was that Batman had actually agreed to something like this, "Are you sure about this?" Bats hated other heroes in his territory, especially for something this . . . off the wall.

His mentor sighed and rubbed his temple like he was getting a headache, "No. I am absolutely positive this will go horribly wrong. But you've already met Speedy and Aqualad; I suppose you better get this one out of the way too."

Despite his mentor's pessimistic tone, Robin was pretty excited. He'd only ever met the other side-kicks once each, so it was fun having another one around. Plus, he always liked it when the Flash was around, if only for his corny jokes and the way he managed to annoy the Bat without getting his head lopped off.

Sometimes.

Surely any partner of Flash could be just as fun.

"Just keep an eye on him," Batman told his charge before grabbing Flash by the arm and dragging him to the South side of town, leaving the younger speedster waving, "Let's get this over with."

Not a second passed after Batman and Flash had disappeared off the roof, before the young red-head was across the roof, standing face-to-face with the Boy Wonder shaking his hand, "HiI' –"

That was all Robin understood, with Kid Flash apparently attempting to vibrate his arm right out of its socket and talking at super speed. The speedster was also leaning in extremely close, so that Robin had to lean back, which was rather dangerous as they were standing near the roof's edge.

After a few seconds, Robin felt he had to interrupt, "Will you please let go of my hand?" his voice vibrated in unison with his arm.

He seemed to catch Kid Flash off guard. The speedster stopped talking, looked down, and abruptly stopped shaking hands and leaned back to a more comfortable distance, "Oh, sorry. Got carried away," Robin's arm was throbbing as Kid Flash continued, thankfully at a normal speech pattern though he was still bouncing, "So, you're Robin, huh?"

"Unless there's another costumed acrobat on this roof, yes," Robin didn't actually mean to sound so rude, but working with Batman it just sort of slipped. Plus, he'd already come to the conclusion that this kid was even more hyper-active than the Flash.

Kid Flash didn't notice the sarcasm, or maybe he just didn't care, because he went on bluntly, "I expected you to be taller," staring at Robin again, studying him further.

Ruffled for a second time that night Robin blurted, "I expected _you_ to be smarter."

He immediately regretted saying that; the speedster finally felt the sting on that one.

Kid flinched and had the decency to look embarrassed. His gaze shifted and red crept up his neck.

Which only made Robin feel worse.

The acrobat sighed and tried to change the subject, they needed to get going or at this rate Batman and Flash would be back and they'd be in trouble, "Never mind, let's just go, we have north." Robin hadn't failed to notice that Batman had given them the "safer" side of Gotham to patrol. It had annoyed him to think that Batman didn't think he could handle the seedier areas, but with Kid Mouth in tow he was rather grateful now.

If only to get away from the now somewhat dejected look on Kid Flash's face, Robin shot a grappling hook to the next building, hoped that Kid Flash would catch on and follow, and swung across.

Not surprisingly the speedster was already waiting for him on the other roof.

"So . . . where do we go first?" the red-head asked, seeming to choose his words more carefully, or else insult his new acquaintance again. Robin resisted the urge to palm his face. He hadn't meant to start off on such a wrong foot.

Instead he tried to keep his voice friendly, "Bats and I always start on Fourth Street, it's this way," he held out his arm to point the direction.

Only to have the arm grabbed, once again by Kid Flash, who somehow pulled him onto his back and hook Robin's arms around the speedster's neck.

"What the _heck_ –" Robin sputtered, but was interrupted.

"I'll get you there way faster than that grappling hook," Kid Flash said excitedly, and without even a second to respond, Robin felt his stomach lurch as they took off.

The mentioned street was only a few miles away, but it only took Robin a few feet to realize, without a doubt, that he did not like riding passenger to a super speedy, hyper-active, red-head. For one, not only had he left his stomach behind at the beginning, but every time KF turned a corner, they jerked rather violently, causing Robin to leave a few more organs behind. Secondly, Kid Flash had not perfected the art of _stopping_, thus the sliding/crashing end to the ride in a pile of garbage in the alley of Fourth Street.

They both sat there for a minute, Robin trying to regain his composure with a paint can over his head while Kid Flash blurted about a hundred "I'm sorry's" a second.

Slowly reaching up to remove the can from his head, Robin did his best imitation of his mentor, "_Never _do that again." So much for trying to be friendlier.

Of course, when he could see without the obstruction of the can, he again regretted his words.

Kid Flash was still sitting next to him, although refusing to look at him, instead staring at the trash around them looking absolutely miserable.

"I . . . I was only . . . trying to help," the speedster said quietly.

This time Robin did palm his face, not that Kid Flash, who was still studying the garbage, saw it.

"Look," Robin said finally, making a last ditch effort to salvage the mood of the rest of the patrol (he did _not_ want to be stuck with a moping speedster for the rest of the night), "Forget it, okay? We're here. So, um, thanks," Kid Flash still didn't look up, "Why don't you start over there and we'll just work our way back to where we'll meet Batman and Flash?" Robin started to get up as KF nodded.

Without a word, the older boy shot off to the other side of the street, leaving Robin to patrol alone.

Robin didn't like just sending him off like that, but he didn't know what else to do. Plus, he wasn't really sure how much he liked this new sidekick. He seemed . . . unpredictable. Robin liked knowing what to expect. That was one thing he could always depend on Batman for. This, Kid Flash, not so much.

Robin sighed and looked above him at the rooftop, readying his grappling hook . . . then thought better of it. He was still waiting for his stomach to catch up to him and was not looking forward to another flying trip.

He didn't get a lot of time to think about it, though. There was a sudden scream.

So much for this being the safer side of town.

Forgetting Kid Flash for the moment, Robin ran to the noise, luckily not too far away. This was the part of patrolling Robin hated the most: the suspense. He hated rounding the corner and not knowing if he would find the Joker or a simple burglary.

Thankfully, this time, it was the latter. A woman standing, clutching her purse to her chest faced a man who looked like he used to play professional football, if only because he could block the entire field himself, and then did time.

Robin caught a look at his face as he slipped into the shadows, which was how he got the mugger's attention, "Wow, you are ugly," Robin really needed to learn to control his mouth better.

The mugger wheeled around, giving Robin an even better view of his good looks, and the woman, overcoming her panicked shock, ran away out of sight.

Ugly glanced back at his would-be victim then back at Robin, "That was a dumb thing you just did," he said grinning. He didn't have many teeth.

_So many comebacks_, Robin thought as the man charged him and he dodged, got behind the mugger and planted his feet on the larger man's shoulders, effectively pushing him to the ground.

Naturally, it went down-hill from there for the bird.

Robin didn't see Ugly's accomplice until after he felt the crowbar hit the back of his head and he fell. It didn't knock him out, but it dazed him long enough for Ugly to stamp down hard on his stomach and hold him to the ground.

Robin groaned as the world swam above him and the air was forced out of his lungs.

Vaguely he heard the unsure voice of the smaller man who'd hit him, "Now what?"

"Gimme that, ya' dope," Ugly said and snatched the crowbar away, "It ain't that hard," and with that he raised the crowbar above his head and began to swing down.

Just as Robin was thinking, _If this guy doesn't kill me, Batman will_, a yellow blur slammed into Ugly with the force of a freight train, plowing him into a wall and releasing Robin.

The smaller man, who obviously had not signed up for yellow blurs popping out of nowhere, ran away faster than the woman before him.

With Ugly knocked out against the wall, the yellow blur, a.k.a. Kid Flash, was suddenly above him spluttering, "Are you okay? Well, no I guess not. I got here as fast as I could when I finished, but I got lost then I couldn't find you then there was this crazy lady screaming about muggers –"

Robin stopped listening as he tried to sit up . . . and abruptly felt the world spin again. He felt arms around his shoulders, holding him up and noticed Kid Flash had stopped talking. Robin reached up behind his head and felt blood.

He groaned again but reached into his belt, handing a pair of cuffs to KF, "Put these on him," he said, indicating Ugly, still knocked out, "they have a built in tracker for the police."

"Really?" Kid Flash's voice perked at the idea. Robin had never seen anyone change moods quite so fast. But the speedster steadied Robin and did as he was told.

When he came back, Robin was trying to get to his feet.

"I'm no doctor," Kid Flash said smiling, pushing Robin back down, much to Robin's irritation, "but I think that's a bad idea."

"We have to go after that other guy," Robin said firmly, albeit faintly.

Kid Flash rolled his eyes, "I doubt that idiot is much of a threat." He sat down next to Robin, both boys leaning against the brick wall.

Robin stared at the newer sidekick for a moment, before relenting. KF was right, and he was trying to be nice and talk Robin out of running after the other crook without saying the younger was simply in no shape.

They sat in silence for a moment, Robin resting his head and trying to come up with something better to say than a simple _thanks_. That only lasted so long before Kid had to occupy himself. He pulled a candy bar out of a compartment in his sleeve and started munching.

After another moment of listening to Kid Flash chew and his head throbbing like a drum line had set up shop in there, Robin spoke, "Thank you." Hey, his head hurt, he'd think of a better sentiment later.

Though it didn't seem to matter much.

"No prob," Kid Flash said, grinning at him.

Robin opened his mouth to say something else; that he felt like a jerk for getting mad earlier, that he should have been nicer, but before he could, Kid grabbed his arm again.

Afraid the red-head was going to speed him somewhere else, Robin flinched back. Kid didn't let go, but laughed, "Don't worry, no more super speed for you tonight," and with that pulled Robin's arm around his wiry shoulders to help the smaller boy to stand.

Robin wobbled, but his companion held him up.

"Thanks," Robin said again, feeling like an idiot for not finding something else to say.

But that seemed to be enough for Kid Flash, who smiled again and also repeated himself more sincerely this time, "No prob."

They started walking back to the meeting place, passed Ugly, still knocked out, and Kid Flash started chattering again.

This time, Robin didn't mind so much.

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><p><strong>AN:** "There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them." _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_

Well, I couldn't find a troll, but I think Ugly will do.

As this approached 3,000 words, I came to the conclusion that I no longer know the meaning of a one-shot. But I hope you liked it anyway (and excuse my fan-girl _Harry Potter_ quote, as I wrote the last part that was what was going through my head).

Thanks for reading and please review.


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